User blog:Pinkguy the b0ss/New Super Mario Bros. Wii Review
What's up my Shreks, it's me DiamondMinerStudios here, and today, it's finally time. For once, I'm going to deliver on my now five-month-old promise : today I'll be reviewing New Super Mario Bros Wii. Not much is known about the development history of this game, so I'm just going to jump right into the review. Let's go. Story Princess Peach invites Mario and friends to the castle again, this time for her birthday. She gets a giant cake, but before anyone can eat any of it, several Koopalings including Bowser Jr. pop out of the cake, steal Peach, and take her to Bowser's main airship. Mario, Luigi, a yellow toad, and a blue toad chase after them in order to save Peach. It's short, simple, and mildly entertaining, and that's all I really need for one of these games. It passes in my book. Gameplay This game is a 2D platformer. Just like every other game in this genre, the goal is to make it from point A to point B. Mario and friends don't have that many new moves, but rather several from the older games return. These include the obvious jump, duck, and run abilities, but moves returning from other specific games include the spin jump from Super Mario World and the ground pound and triple jump abilities from the 3D Mario games. The only new move is a Galaxy-esque midair spin, which allows you to get a little extra distance out of a jump. These moves are quite useful for certain situations, but not quite as useful as each one was in the games they originated from. There's a reason for this, and I'll discuss it in the next section. Several powerups are also included to shake up the gameplay. The best new powerup has to be the helicopter mushroom, which breaks the game in half. It's basically a 2D version of the Rocket Nozzle from Super Mario Sunshine - it allows for a sudden and intense burst of altitude. The thing that makes this powerup too powerful is this - after activating the mushroom, instead of simply falling down, you start to slowly descend. This can extend your jumps by an insane length, allowing you to skip entire stages. Other powerups like the fire flower, ice flower, and penguin suit can also be useful, but nothing compares to the helicopter mushroom. This game's controls are..... ok. Jumping and running feel fine enough, albeit a little bit slippery. Motion controls are (thankfully) minimal, but they feel a slight bit slippery as well. Part of the problem is the controller, the Wiimote. This is a very personal issue - let me explain. When I'm playing pretty much any other 2D Mario game on the NES or SNES, I can work well with the controller I'm given because the form factor is comfortable, the build quality is excellent, and the d-pad and buttons are great. The Wiimote, on the other hand, feels like a weak piece of plastic (maybe because.... well.... it is.), its d-pad is very small and stiff, and the buttons are as small as a Gamecube B-button (but unlike that button, the Wii buttons aren't that great). The Wiimote also has a very awkward form factor - it's basically a wider version of the NES controller. These issues combined make controlling the game mildly annoying at times. Honestly, though, given the console, this game controls well enough. I never felt like any time I died was due to poor controls. As for the game's world, it generally follows the standard Super Mario Bros 3 themes - grassy plains, deserts, tropical islands, icefields, clouds, and a fiery hell-like area. Something useful is the ability to skip certain worlds, which works in a combination of the Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World systems. Just like Mario 3, you're allowed to skip several worlds to get to the final world relatively quick. In order to do this, you need to hunt down secret exits in a similar way to Super Mario World. Doing so will open a cannon that you can use to get instantly teleported to a later world. World 1 has a cannon to World 5, and World 6 goes straight to World 8. This is honestly my preferred method to beat this game, because it's quite long and can get boring at times. Want to know why? Well... Difficulty This game is..... extremely easy. Unlike pretty much every other 2D Mario game, which are usually decently challenging, the New Super Mario Bros. games in general have developed a reputation of being a more casual platforming experience. NSMBW is no exception to this. In fact, one nickname I have for this game is "Baby's First Super Mario World." First off, enemies don't really pose much of a threat. Having no powerups makes enemies a bit harder to dodge, but still extremely doable. Bosses are also very easy, even by Mario standards. There may be occasions where enemies require some strategy to take out, but it's usually a relatively simple strategy. Even the final boss against a giant Bowser is easy, because you just have to dodge his slow-moving fireballs. Halfway through, you also get a helicopter mushroom, which trivializes the last platforming segment of the fight. The visibility is also extremely wide. This is probably due to the game including multiplayer and being rendered in widescreen. In order for every player to see what they're doing, the camera needs to zoom out far. This makes avoiding upcoming enemies and hazards extremely easy. This is obviously a great choice and I won't complain at all about it, as it makes the blame of any deaths that may occur rest on the player. However, with this in mind, it would have been nice for the game's levels to be made a bit harder. Soundtrack The soundtrack of this game is..... good and bad. There's many great tracks, like the final boss theme and the World 5 overworld level theme, and the World 8 overworld level theme (which reminds me of the song Disco Train from DKC2, which is a great song, so.... yeah) but on the other hand, there's some pretty annoying songs like the World 1 overworld level theme and the toad house theme. There's also fairly bland ones, like the castle theme. Overall, not a terrible soundtrack, but an average one at best. Graphics This game's graphics look alright, but are a bit underwhelming for a 2009 Wii game. As high-quality as the graphics are, the art direction is fairly weak this time around. It doesn't do enough to distinguish itself from other Mario games. The presentation is also somewhat lacking. In games like Donkey Kong Country 1 or 2 or Sonic 3&K, the characters are given expressive animations that give a whole range of emotions - for example : if you stand near a ledge the character(s) will freak out, there's various idle animations, and a victory animation for each character. In NSMBW, there's not much more than the death animation and a single victory animation for when you beat a boss. Because of all this, NSMBW ends up being a fairly forgettable game. Conclusion This game has me somewhat mixed. On one hand, the powerups are fun to use, the controls are good, and the field of view is excellent. On the other, however, the game is extremely easy, has a mixed bag of a soundtrack, and ends up being rather forgettable due to the graphics and presentation. Due to all of these things, this game is what I consider to be the weakest 2D Mario game of all that I've played. While underwhelming, it's not a bad game at all. It's not the worst 2D Mario game, I mean, Lost Levels still inhabits that spot and won't be leaving it anytime soon. I just think it's the weakest one, which doesn't mean "worst." If you want to play it, you can either do so on a Wii or Wii U with a game disc, or load it on an emulator. If you would rather skip this one, you won't be missing all that much if you do so. I'm more of a centrist on this game, so I think either option is fine, whatever you want to do. So, now that that's finally done with, what next? The next Mario game I'm trying to beat is Super Mario Bros 3. Before reviewing it, I'll tell you this - I love it, but oh boy will I have a lot to say about that game. Whenever I finally beat the game, I'll be sure to give my thoughts in full in one of these posts. I'm also trying to beat Super Mario Bros 2, but I haven't been doing that all that much. If I ever beat that game, it will probably be the SNES or GBA version, for..... reasons. I'm also planning on covering New Super Mario Bros. DS. Maybe I'll even do a movie review or Fuck this Shit entry next time. Whatever the case, see you all later. Category:Blog posts